Video of our Jinnah of Pakistan discussion

An extremely interesting discussion led by historian Dr Muhammad Reza Kazimi on Stanley Wolpert’s book Jinnah of Pakistan was held at The Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA). The video is below and the press coverage is available here.

Kashmir: The Way Forward

The Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA) organised conference on ‘Kashmir, the Way Forward’ which was held on 29-30 January 2020: see our coverage on Pakistan Horizon Blog here and here. Numerous dignitaries spoke at the event including Dr Masuma Hasan, IA Rahman and former Ambassador and Foreign Secretary of Pakistan Riaz Khokhar. The videos from day one and day two of the Conference are available below.

 

Muhammad Munir: From Jinnah to Zia

Muhammad Munir was the Chief Justice of Pakistan from 29 June 1954 – 2 May 1960. He did not believe in democracy and the rule of law. He believed that Pakistan was best run from the top down by the civil and military bureaucracy. He destroyed democracy in Pakistan by giving a series of poor judgments favouring the Government, the first of these being Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan PLD 1955 FC 240. Later in The State v Dosso PLD 1958 SC 533, Munir set out to develop the manacles of the doctrine of necessity even further by validating and upholding martial law. His book From Jinnah to Zia where he appeared to regret his judgments can be read here.

Video of Chinese scholars’ visit to PIIA

A delegation of scholars from Sichuan University led by Prof. Yan Shijing, Vice President of Sichuan University addressed in a roundtable session held in the library of The Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA) on 18 December 2019. The video is available below and the full post is available on Pakistan Horizon Blog. It was said that China strongly supports the position of Pakistan in Kashmir.

Video of Talk by Dr Kaiser Bengali

“Pakistan is facing a major economic crisis for which we need to take urgent steps. But first we need to take our economic sovereignty back,” said economist Dr Kaiser Bengali, while proposing to ban all non-essential consumer imports in order to promote local industry. He was speaking at an interactive session on ‘Contemporary Economic and Security Issues in Pakistan’ at the library of The Pakistan Institute of Inter­national Affairs on 5 December 2019. Earlier, Dr Nausheen Wasi, assistant professor, Department of International Relations, Univer­sity of Karachi, gave a presentation about FATF (see here).

Video: Kashmir: A Nuclear Flashpoint

Addressing a lecture on “Kashmir: a nuclear flashpoint” organised by The Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA) in its library, Dr Rabia said the issue of Kashmir later was taken over by what was happening in Syria with the Turks and the Kurds and the Middle-East and then the Trump with his tweets gained all the attention.She said, “We needs to keep the world involved in Kashmir in the same way as the prime minister addressed over the issue in UNGA.” Recalling an interview of General Khalid Kidwai who was the founding Director-General of Strategic Plans Division which was the Secretariat of National Command Authority and served the post for around 16 years, Dr. Rabia Akhtar said General Khalid Kidwai gave four red lines for Pakistan which if crossed can push Pakistan to contemplate the use option of war including special threshold, military threshold, economic threshold and social-political threshold. The full report with photography by Farhan Khan is here.

Video of PIIA Roundtable on Iran with Dr Syed Mohammad Kazem Sajjadpour

On Friday, July 19 2019, Dr. Syed Mohammad Kazem Sajjadpour, President of the famous Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS), visited us at The Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA) for a roundtable on Iran’s relationship with the United States and how it is influencing the course of events in the region. He said that in order to understand the question of why Iran is the way it is today, it is important to comprehend three integral factors – the United States’ contradictory policies with Iran, the resulting state of bitterness, and an uneven assessment of the available possibilities. By laying emphasis on the contradictory policies of the United States, during very tense times, Dr. Kazem sought to explain how certain inconsistencies in the harsh policies of the United States have been a significant source of tension between the two countries, especially when pursuing negotiations and settling agreements.